D-Link Boxee Box DSM-380 media streamer

Content provider?

Common Topics

Rank and file

SeeSaw is testing its own content on Boxee and, based on my experience, still has some way to go. Once you get to the web page, you have to use the mouse pointer to start the playback, and to turn the volume up from minimum, select full screen, and then move the pointer out of the way, otherwise the SeeSaw control bar will be stuck on screen the whole time. And I found it too easy to end up with the Boxee interface thinking the video was paused, when it was playing, and vice-versa.

Seesaw's content is available but appears to be work in progress

In short, it may let you access lots of web video, but the integration needs a lot more work, and it’s far from seamless. Sometimes I ended up with a small iPlayer video in the top left of the screen, or viewing the adverts from SeeSaw’s web site, or just with a blank screen. Some members of the family will certainly find this confusing.

File browsing seems clear enough

When it comes to playback from your local networks, as you’d expect from something based on XBMC, the Boxee box will play back just about any media format you care to throw at it.

It was perfectly happy with just about all my test files, including some XviD clips that cause other players to reboot, and even coped with a QuickTime 7 H.264 file that almost nothing else will play, choking only when it came to one of my other QuickTime samples. Audio support is similarly wide ranging, and includes Flac and Ogg formats – the full list is in the spec sheet.

Seek and you will find

Essentially, though, most people will find that any media stored on their PC or home network will play back just fine. There’s a wide range of settings for configuring the outputs to make sure that audio is presented in a format your AV equipment will cope with too.